Northern Ireland’s Education Authority (EA) has reported an estimated 15% fall in tendered school taxi mileage rates and decided to award outstanding runs to the lowest bidders, despite continuing concerns about some prices.
The authority tendered more than 1,200 runs. Its early analysis indicates that mileage rates came down by around 15%, but it says some bids remain excessive.
The new results bring the procurement process to a contract-award decision: EA will award the remaining runs to the operators that submitted the lowest tenders, with the aim of preserving school transport.
Cost concerns remain
As an example of the prices still causing concern, EA cited a route of less than 20 miles for which the lowest bid was around £250 a day. That assessment of the price is the authority’s; the figure is a tendered daily charge for an individual route.
The wider 15% figure is also specific to tendered mileage rates. It should not be read as a confirmed 15% reduction in the authority’s overall school transport bill, and remains an early assessment of the tender results.
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Contracts to proceed
For operators awaiting the remaining awards, the immediate outcome is that EA will proceed with the lowest tendered bids rather than leave those runs unawarded because of its cost concerns.
Payments to parents remain a possible future alternative. They have not been announced as a replacement policy for school taxi provision.
The immediate decision therefore concerns awarding the outstanding taxi runs to maintain transport, not replacing those contracts with parental payments.
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